Sushi State? Panel Picks CSUCI for New Campus

With little talk and even less ceremony, a committee of California State University trustees Tuesday approved a name for the university system’s yet-to-be-built campus in Ventura County.

“California State University, Channel Islands” was selected after Cal State Chancellor Barry Munitz two weeks ago recommended the name for what will one day be the university system’s 23rd campus.

“When it has a name, it has a tendency to become a reality,” said Jim Considine, chairman of the university system’s Committee on Institutional Advancements.

J. Handel Evans, acting president of the campus planned for a 260-acre parcel just west of Camarillo, said Tuesday’s pick brings officials a little closer to their goal of building the $700-million university.

“The naming is another step forward, albeit a small one,” Evans said before the meeting. “I think that we can now start to think about how we can actually put this thing together.”

Cal State officials must first raise the money to build the campus. Its construction could take up to 25 years.

But Evans said selecting a name for the university could make the task a little easier, helping to rally officials and residents around plans for the new campus.

“I think it shows that the university is a regional university,” Evans said of the name. “It suggests all the good things about this area: open space, a new beginning, something fresh, something clean.”

But officials were at a loss to say what nicknames might evolve from the new name, which when abbreviated spells CSUCI.

“That is going to come as the students start to identify with it, and the community starts to identify with it,” said Considine, who owns a ranch in Ojai. “Whatever the nickname is, it will fit the campus.”

He added that the university trustees avoid names whose acronym could be considered obscene or offensive.

Evans, too, refused to speculate. “I will be the last person to give it a nickname,” he said.

Many Cal State campuses are named after the city nearest to the university, but a special group of advisors rejected the idea of including cities such as Camarillo, Oxnard or Ventura in the title.

“That would be pretty exclusive for the people in Thousand Oaks or Simi Valley,” said Carolyn Leavens, chairwoman of a community task force formed to help plan the new campus.

Dan Wakelee, assistant director of Cal State University Northridge’s Ventura campus, called the pick a diplomatic choice.

“It certainly avoids, shall we say, competition among cities over whose name it is going to have,” said Wakelee, whose satellite campus on Alessandro Drive would probably be relocated to combine with the new university.

The entire Cal State board of trustees is set to formally approve the new name at a meeting today.

Leavens said that before zeroing in on the Channel Islands name, her group had batted around dozens of names including ones that had Ventura County and Gold Coast in the titles.

“Gold Coast was a little too cutesy,” Leavens said. “We had everything under the sun.”

Only one trustee, Ralph Pisqueira, raised concerns about the name Tuesday, saying it might confuse people about the campus’ precise location. “The first thought that might come to their minds is that they might have a campus on the Channel Islands,” he said.

But other trustees said they backed the name, which was developed by a 10-member task force.

The group began giving the Channel Islands name serious thought after Cal State Northridge English professor David Andersen, who sails the islands, lobbied for the pick earlier this year.

From the proposed campus site--a lemon orchard near Camarillo--you can actually spot islands in the Channel Islands chain on a clear day. A similar view is available from the grounds of Camarillo State Hospital, which is targeted for closure by Gov. Pete Wilson and could potentially be turned into a university campus.

Some Cal State officials have shown interest in taking over the 750-acre hospital complex if it closes, but Evans said university plans will go forward whatever the hospital’s fate.

“The campus is something we are going to do regardless of where we are with the hospital,” Evans said.